crs1026
Superstar
The UPX is a great pace to see whether these trains are worth the investment and it would be years before they order and get them and by then Toronto can see the issues with the trains by the German experience which will already be up and running. Alstom would jump at the chance of lending Toronto a train for 6 months for increased frequency on the UPX and that sure as hell beats the alternative of having to buy another diesel train. Toronto is the ONLY city on the entire planet that runs diesel trains to it's airport.
Get a trial going and see how they perform. If they turn out to be duds or just not what Toronto or other Ontario needs then no harm done. They could however be exactly what's need in other cities or off-peak. Choice is always a good thing.
This exactly how hydrogen should be attempted.
The fly in the oinment appears to be - this low-risk trial is potentially being used as a silver-bullet excuse to defer the entire procurement and installation of wires across the system. That would impose a disastrous delay on RER (and ST, if anyone cares).
As you point out, every other city has just bit the bullet and strung wires. Ontario and ML should have no illusion that hydrogen will arrive in time to enable a wire free network. In the extremely optimistic case - If hydrogen takes off, and arrives soon, we could be the last jurisdiction to ever install catenary, and we could end up wondering why we did that. Personally, five years from now I would much rather be complaining about all the money we wasted on wires than be complaining about not having any progress on RER. In this case, Time wasted is money wasted.
- Paul